Fountain Valley’s Nguyen stays fast at CIF swim prelims

RIVERSIDE — Fountain Valley High senior Justin Nguyen tends to be a cool customer under pressure in swim meets.

This is the same guy who broke the Sunset League record of former Edison star and Olympian Tom Shields last week in the 200-yard freestyle.

Nguyen swam different events Thursday morning at Riverside City College during the CIF Southern Section Division 1 swimming preliminaries, but the USC-bound Baron was no less dominant as he looks to defend his Division 1 titles in the 100 freestyle and 100 breaststroke.

He qualified first in the former event in 44.55 seconds, and second in the latter in 49.51. Nguyen said he’s ready for the Division 1 finals, which are Saturday night back in Riverside.

“I have more in the tank,” Nguyen said. “I just wanted to make finals. We’ll see Saturday night.”

Yes, the goal at prelims is to make finals, but Nguyen still was plenty fast. He said he was happy with his 100 freestyle time in particular, as it is just three-hundredths of a second off his fastest.

Other swimmers also stepped up to make championship finals in both of their respective events, by placing top nine at prelims. Fountain Valley sophomore Hannah Farrow qualified sixth in the 200 IM in 2:05.41, and third in the butterfly in 55.73.

“During the [butterfly] race, I didn’t feel very good,” Farrow said. “So when I looked at the board to see the time, I was surprised, actually. I was happy. It was a good time for me … I did what I needed to do.”

Barons junior Shayla Erickson, another key part of the Barons team that won its first Sunset League title since 1997, also qualified for two championship finals. She made it in the 200 free (seventh, 1:51.35) and 500 free (sixth, 4:56.06). Erickson said she was not fully rested, as she prepares to swim a 5K event, the USA Swimming Open Water Junior Nationals, next weekend at Castaic Lake. But she said they were good prelims swims.

Marina senior Jacqueline Harris, Marina sophomore Sage Matsushima and Newport Harbor sophomore Ayla Spitz also made championship finals in a pair of events. Harris qualified fourth in the 100 butterfly in 55.78, a spot behind Farrow and two behind Matsushima, who qualified second in 55.24.

“There were so many [Novaquatics club] girls in my heat,” Harris said. “It’s really fun having them to race; it makes it more exciting. Finals should be fun.”

Harris, bound for UC Santa Barbara, also qualified eighth in the girls’ 50 free in 23.79.

Spitz qualified third in the 100 free (50.22) and fifth in the backstroke (55.50). Matsushima qualified ninth in the backstroke (56.95).

Fountain Valley’s girls 200 medley relay of Carly Perri, Farrow, Erickson and Kennedy Hood qualified sixth in 1:47.48. The CdM boys’ 200 medley relay of Ethan Archer, Ryan Schildwachter, Tanner Pulice and Davis Wong also qualified sixth in 1:34.85.

Archer also made the championship finals in a pair of events, dropping more than two seconds to qualify ninth in the butterfly (50.21). He then qualified fifth in the backstroke in 50.05.

“Prelim-wise, it’s good, and finals will be a different story,” Archer said. “Making top nine was all I needed to do. I can’t complain. [Leading qualifier] Daniel Kim [of Tesoro] had a good swim, and it will be a good race on Saturday.”

An Edison swimmer who made two championship finals was senior Meghan Kluck. She qualified fourth in the breaststroke in 1:03.49, and ninth in the 50 free in 23.80.

Kluck qualifying in the breaststroke was impressive to Edison Coach Matt Whitmore, considering she missed time at the start of the season with a knee injury.

“She had to do physical therapy and just work on arm strokes, no legs,” Whitmore said. “Breaststroke is all about the legs, so that was a tough one. It might have ended up doing her good, though, because her fourth 25 [yards], it was the first time in her life that she held stroke on the fourth 25. She’s usually really good for 75 yards.”

Huntington Beach senior Ethan Wojciechowski also qualified for the championship finals in two events, the 50 free (ninth, 21.30) and 100 free (eighth, 46.35). Wojciechowski, who helped the Oilers boys’ water polo team reach its first Division 1 title game last fall, said he did it despite battling sickness the last couple of days.

Other local swimmers also qualified for the championship finals in one event. They included Edison senior Nora Deleske (girls’ 200 IM, qualified ninth); Huntington Beach junior Jacob Cavano (boys’ 50 free, fifth); Fountain Valley senior Carly Perri (girls’ butterfly, eighth); Marina junior Terra Matsushima (girls’ 100 free, ninth); Corona del Mar junior Ryan Schildwachter (boys’ breaststroke, sixth); and Edison senior Jonny Bramm (boys’ 500 free, eighth).

Huntington Beach’s boys’ 200 free relay of Cavano, Ryan Hurst, Grant Brehm and Wojciechowski qualified fourth in 1:24.18. Newport Harbor’s 200 free relay team of Nick Halphide, Jason Grew, Max Sandberg and Reece Hemmens qualified seventh in 1:25.12.

The Sailors also made the “A” final of the 400 free relay, as the same quartet qualified eighth in 3:07.40.

Newport Harbor’s girls’ relays also were strong. The 200 free relay of Ayla and Zoe Spitz, Dinny Stevens and Caroline Yasko qualified fourth in 1:37.19, just off their school-record time. The same four girls then qualified fifth in the 400 free relay, in 3:30.44.

“I think it was a good prelims swim, so I think we’ll come back Saturday night and be that much better,” Stevens said. “It’s finals, it’s night time. That’s when we train, at night time, so all the odds are in our favor. We’re all excited.”

Marina’s girls’ 400 free relay of Harris, Madeline Sandstead, Terra and Sage Matsushima qualified third in 3:29.81.

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